My Journey

This is my experience as a trainee with DWT. To give some context, as part of the Pine Marten project there is funding to work with young people. This is called Youth Pathways. This involves working with youth groups to educate young people about Pine Martens. Adrian Fowle is the Youth Pathways Officer for this project. 

Now where do I step into this? I am one of the 2 Youth Pathways trainees. As part of the funding there are 2 trainees who spend 10 months with Devon wildlife trust. The first 5 months are spent with different teams for a week to learn what they do. After the trainees have spent time with the different teams we then specialize in what we want to do at Devon Wildlife Trust.

What I Have Done The First 5 Months

I made a video for the communications team on how to clean your bird feeder and created a separate video for the wilder communities team on how to set up a hedgehog tunnel.

I was lucky enough to do Pine Marten tracking at Exmoor! When I was there I manged to get a few beeps while I was tracking! I did work using camera traps at Dartmoor as well.

I have done work with the reserve team as well. I did Blackthorn clearing on a rather rainy day at Ludwell, bracken clearing at Dunsford and made a dead hedge.

I worked with the wilder communities team doing school visits which was interesting. I was with the Saving Devon's treescapes team at both tree nurseries, and processed seeds at Broadclyst.

I visited the Beaver enclosure which was exciting to see all the Beaver activity in the area, I also went to the Wembury marine centre and did a few shark and skate egg surveys. 

What's Next?

After the first 5 months, of being with the different teams you get to pick which teams you want to be with. I picked Communications and Reserves. I picked these teams because I enjoy doing the different types of reserve work and being outside on the sites seeing all the wildlife and the different habitats. I picked communications because I enjoy filming and video editing. I also quite like learning about all the different aspects of the team.

So far with the teams, I have learnt how the website works in more depth. I have been making this very blog you are reading! I have created a social media post for Devon Wildlife Trust on the Flower Crab spider. With Reserves, I have been to a mix of the valley parks and the reserves across Devon. Where I have helped with fixing a fence, scrub clearing, tree planting and setting up cactus guards. 

With the rest of the traineeship, I am hoping to learn lots more with the teams I have picked! I will be looking out for unusual wildlife at the reserves particularly Spiders as I find them quite fascinating!

Photos Of Wildlife

This is just some of the wildlife I have seen so far during the traineeship.